how it works
usdc-native bonding curves, settled in under a second.
what arclight is
a token launchpad on arc, circle's stablecoin L1. one transaction deploys a fixed-supply token (1B, no mint, no burn, no owner), a bonding curve holding all of it, and — optionally — the creator's first buy. no orderbook, no liquidity pool to seed: the curve is the market from its first block.
the first buy happens inside the launch transaction itself. the curve doesn't exist until that moment, so there is nothing to snipe and no way to front-run the creator.
how the curve prices tokens
constant product with a virtual reserve. the curve behaves as if it already held $5.00, which sets the starting price and keeps early math sane:
price = ($5 + usdc on the curve) ÷ tokens remaining
- supply, every token
- 1,000,000,000
- virtual reserve
- $5.00
- starting price
- $0.000000005
- curve at 100%
- 90% of supply sold = $45.00 in
worked example — a $10.00 buy on a fresh curve: $0.10 fee, $9.90 onto the curve, ≈664,429,530 tokens out (66.4% of supply). price after: ≈$0.0000000444, about 8.9× the start.
the $5 virtual reserve is priced in but never paid out — sells can only withdraw usdc that buyers actually deposited.
fees
1% each direction, taken on the usdc side. buys: deducted from what you send before it reaches the curve. sells: deducted from your payout. fees accrue on each curve until the protocol fee recipient claims them. no launch fee.
slippage
every trade carries a floor — min tokens out on buys, min usdc out on sells — set from the live quote minus your tolerance. if the curve moves past it before your transaction lands, the trade reverts as "price moved" and nothing changes.
buying and selling
buyingis one transaction. usdc is arc's gas token, so your buy amount rides along as native value — no approval, no wrapping. attach usdc, receive tokens.
selling takes two transactions the first time: approve the curve to move your tokens, then sell. the payout arrives as native usdc in the same transaction as the sale.
gas is usdc
arc's native gas token is usdc, so gas is a dollar amount — roughly $0.01 per transaction. the chain enforces a hard 20 gwei minimum base fee, and transactions priced below it hang forever. arclight sets fees above the floor on every transaction, so a stuck tx should never come from gas.
what "payout failed" means
arc enforces an address blocklist in the chain runtime: a native usdc transfer to a blocked address fails even when the sender holds plenty of balance. if a sell payout is rejected, the whole trade reverts — your tokens never leave your wallet. it is the chain declining the recipient, not the curve losing your funds.
curve progress and the bead
every token draws the brand arc with its image riding it as a bead. the bead's position is the token's real bonding-curve progress — 100% when 90% of supply has been sold, which the math reaches at exactly $45.00 on the curve. monochrome at rest; blue only while the token is live (traded in the last five minutes).
a curve at 74% — where a single $10.00 first buy lands it.
testnet
arclight runs on arc testnet only — chain id 5042002. mainnet does not exist. tokens launched here have no value and never will. get testnet usdc from the faucet and verify anything on the explorer.
factory: 0xf8D5…B562
enough reading. launch something.